Nationals
by trufflemores
Summary: A missing New Directions sleepover that took place the night before Nationals (a la Season 3). Written for the lovely kurtsies , who prompted: "blaine sitting all snuggled up between kurt's legs and falling asleep with his face tucked into kurt's neck in front of like, all of new directions. and. and. and. cute. yes. *o*" Klaine. COMPLETE.


**Disclaimer**: I do not own Glee or any of its characters; Ryan Murphy and Co. hold that honor. I'm simply writing this for fun, not profit.

Upon reflection, Mr. Schuester should have realized that corralling sixteen teenagers into four hotel rooms was a recipe for disaster.

To Kurt's surprise, the situation didn't deteriorate nearly as quickly as he had thought that it would have. At first it almost seemed like everything would be fine. As soon as the arrangements were announced and their luggage toted off the bus, Sugar quickly commandeered her own room on her daddy's dime while Joe charitably agreed to sleep on the floor to give Artie his own bed. From there, the charity ended: Puck and Mike wrestled for the better part of ten minutes over the bed and its alternative, the pull out couch, before Puck flipped Mike over the coffee table and shattered a vase (much to Mr. Schuester's dismay).

After that, things went downhill rather quickly. The vase shattering incident summoned Mercedes and Quinn from the adjacent room. Kurt didn't hear the first part of their conversation, but by the end Quinn and Puck were well into another heated argument when Mr. Schuester finally arrived (at which point he promptly squawked over the broken vase). Striving to regain control, Mr. Schuester further enflamed the situation by threatening to assign rooms, his voice muffled by the others' as they continued to shout increasingly energetically at one another. Santana joined in shortly thereafter while Brittany inquired over the whereabouts of the pizza.

"Should we help them?" Blaine asked, tilting his head worriedly to listen to the others arguing as Kurt towel-dried his hair, fresh from his shower.

"Give them twenty minutes," Kurt assured, sashaying across the room to his bag – not missing the way Blaine's eyes were glued to his hips as he held up a towel one-handed – and pulling out his moisturizers.

Amply distracted, Blaine stared at him as he carefully groomed his hair into submission and smoothed moisturizer over his cheeks while pretending to be engaged in Kurt's mindless commentary about an upcoming Vogue internship that he was thinking about applying for. He was excited for the internship, and there would be serious conversation dedicated to it at another time, but for now Kurt enjoyed the way that he could reduce Blaine to little more than _Yes, goods_ and _Uh huhs _with a little finessing.

Seated cross-legged on the bed, Blaine was still cute even in his slightly rumpled street clothes, sporting a yellow top with a pair of beige chinos and curling hair already escaping the gel. Kurt wanted to shoo him into the shower while no one else was around to steal all the remaining hot water, but he also enjoyed his company too much to do so. Besides, he liked the light blush that stole across Blaine's cheeks as Kurt attended to his own skin. It hadn't lose its appeal that he still had that effect on Blaine.

As promised, the commotion eventually died down. Unwilling to venture forth and see the events unfolding, Kurt could only judge what was happening based on the conversation. All signs pointed towards an amicable truce as the voices quieted to more normal conversational tones. From what he gathered, Mr. Schuester was the first to leave with little more than a promise of dire consequences if anyone broke anything else. Quinn and Mercedes also vanished back into their own corner while Puck and Mike unpacked, their voices quipping back and forth through the walls.

Not waiting for Sam, Rory, and Finn to return with the pizzas, Kurt capped the bottles and made a point of slowly picking out his pajamas, holding up the shirts to his bare chest for a second opinion as Blaine stumbled over a "Good" or "Mmm" accordingly.

When he dared not linger any longer before the boys returned, Kurt disappeared into the bathroom to dress before reemerging cozily clad in his comfiest pajamas. "Uh uh uh," he chided when Blaine scurried off the bed that he had been sitting on to join Kurt on the one next to it, "shower first."

Wearing his most disapproving pout, Blaine grumbled and pulled together a set of pajamas haphazardly before vanishing behind the bathroom door just as Sam and Rory tried unsuccessfully to open the door. "No, dude, turn it- oh hey, Kurt!" Sam greeted, beaming, holding up a three-stack of pizzas. "We got food!"

Not one to miss an opportunity to capitalize on potential cuddles, Blaine emerged from the bathroom just in time to bump into Rory as he shuffled into the room after Sam. "How many of these did you _buy_?" he asked, dazed and somewhat amazed as he relieved the top two off Rory's pile.

"Thanks a lot," Rory said sincerely, depositing his remaining box on the desk before flopping back on the largely untouched bed – Kurt had already staked a clear claim on the other one. "Sam said we'd be better off with too many than not enough. Something about avoiding conflict."

"Probably a smart idea," Kurt admitted, folding his legs neatly underneath himself as he sat on his bed, holding out his arms invitingly towards Blaine. Brightening, Blaine stepped towards him, clearly ready to settle down for some much-needed end-of-the-day snuggles, before Kurt shook his head and pointed at a pizza box.

Blaine pouted but obliged, sulkily sitting on the end of the bed as Kurt cheerfully took the box from him and pulled out a slice.

Between the two of them they ate three-quarters of the pizza while Rory and Sam finished theirs. Finn, Joe, Mike, Puck, and Artie successfully cleared three boxes of pizza while the girls split the remaining three.

"Hnnnn," Blaine groaned, flopping over Kurt's legs and hugging a pillow to his face. "So much food."

Rubbing his back in soothing strokes, Kurt pointed out, "At least it wasn't gas station food. That's what we did our first year when we ran out of funding."

"We have funding now?"

"No, but Mr. Schuester agreed to foot the bill if we didn't break curfew."

A thoughtful pause stretched between them before Blaine asked at last, "_Are _we going to break curfew?"

"_We're_ not," Kurt assured him, letting his hand run up the length of his back before settling in his curls, rubbing gently at his head.

True to his word, they didn't leave their room – but the others soon gravitated towards it, evidently driven away from each other and towards a new source of entertainment. Puck's PlayStation proved popular as the others migrated towards their room. It only took fifteen minutes before all of the boys had squeezed into one room – which, seemingly inevitably, meant that the girls soon trickled in as well.

First it was Rachel, who tried briefly and unsuccessfully to convince them to consider actually _practicing _their music rather than "wasting time," as she defined it, until Finn gently pulled her aside and eventually quelled her by letting her play as his character for a while. Santana switched seamlessly from disdaining their activities to stealing most of Kurt's pillow space on his bed, Brittany squeezing onto the space beside her. Forced into a seated position – or, Kurt mused, to dangle over the bed as an alternative – Blaine grumpily sat up and didn't stop pouting until Kurt rolled his eyes and let him settle between his legs so he could hug him from behind.

Shortly after Tina, Quinn, and Mercedes joined them for want of something to do, quickly immersing themselves in the general conversation as Puck, Artie, and Sam continued to trade talk back and forth on the floor in front of the TV. Mercedes joined them on the bed on Blaine's opposite side while Tina, Quinn, Joe, and Sugar – who was last but least conspicuous to arrive in a bright set of matching pink pajamas – shared the other one, nibbling on pizza ends and discussing the finer points of Chicago.

Though aching for a bit of quiet time after a truly exhaustive day of preparations and travel, Kurt couldn't deny the warmth that he felt at being included in the group. It hadn't come together as a conscious decision on anyone's part, but it was nice to reap the results. It was nice to be a part of something.

And it was also nice to cuddle his warm, sleepy boyfriend. Blaine all but purred with satisfaction at being held, scarcely moving as he soaked in the comfort of Kurt's arms while Kurt chatted absentmindedly with Mercedes. Their conversation drifted as Mercedes focused her attention on Sam, and Kurt only had a moment to wonder if there was something still _there _before Blaine shuffled closer to him. He pressed his face against Kurt's neck, curling in even closer before snuffling softly as he drifted off, breathing soft and even against Kurt's collarbone.

And oh, it was heady to be needed and wanted and loved. Kurt curled his own arms even more tightly around Blaine's back in response, gentle enough not to disturb him but firm enough to keep him from slipping out of his grasp as he slumped in Kurt's hold.

"He asleep?" Mercedes asked.

Kurt shushed her gently with a hand, nodding once as he added, "Mmhm."

It didn't matter if they walked away with a trophy, he decided; as long as he got to hold Blaine forever, then he would be happy.

Kurt started to drift off two hours later to the same thought, tangled in their sheets but thankfully alone, Rory and Sam occupying the remaining space around them. Getting Blaine under the covers had been a challenge when he was only just on the cusp of consciousness, but the warmth of his arms around Kurt was well worth the extra effort as Kurt tucked his chin against the top of his head, slotting into place neatly.

"'Night, honey," he murmured, seconds away from sleep when he felt Blaine hum against his shoulder, past the stage of moving to respond but still mustering a soft:

"'Night, Kurt."

Winning nationals would be incredible, but it was moments like these – and future moments like this – that Kurt treasured the most.


End file.
